Discrimination Suit Against Airline Is A Fat Lot Of Nonsense

You want to know what's wrong with America? It's the federal government suing American Airlines for allegedly discriminating against fat flight attendants.

The United States of America, in all its awesome sovereignty, surely has more important things to do than concern itself with the minutiae of personnel matters in a private business. It certainly has a better use for the tens of thousands of dollars this suit will cost. Applying it to the deficit, for example.

American Airlines, like most American businesses struggling to survive into today's global competition, certainly has better things to do than to waste thousands of dollars in lawyer's fees defending itself against this ridiculous suit.

The non-issue is the airline's weight and height requirements which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contends are discriminatory. For example, they claim that limiting people who are 5 feet 5 inches tall to 129 pounds discriminates against women over 40.

The EEOC lawyer, who ought to be concerned about real discrimination that hurts people, claims the airline is sexist. What hogwash. A woman can be trim as a gymnast and still be ugly as a horse. American's weight and height requirements say nothing about beauty.

Perhaps it is the EEOC lawyer who is the sexist, since he apparently believes flight attendants serve no other purpose than to serve coffee, tea and spirits. In fact, of course, flight attendants are responsible for evacuating in the aircraft in emergencies, a task which certainly can call for physical fitness and agility.

In the jumbled interior of crashed plane, you don't need some whale-size senior citizen in a bulging uniform wheezing and wobbling through the wreckage to help passengers escape poisonous fumes and searing flames. Nor is it sexiness you want at such a time. It's a cool head, the stamina of youth, and the strength and agility necessary to help people get out of the darn plane.

The government and its lawyers, as well as many judges, have gone nutso over the idea of discrimination. They have used the concept as a blank check to instigate litigation and create jobs for themselves.

It's one thing to say people shouldn't discriminate against another person because of their race or sex. Ordinary people can easily spot such discrimination and it all seems a simple matter. Not when the lawyers and judges get hold of it, however. They can complicate an amoeba.

One judge, for example, decided that weight and height requirements for police officers constituted discrimination against women and they are now forbidden. Well, by the same logic, you can accuse the National Basketball Association of discrimination against dwarfs. They've never hired one.

Police departments had weight and height requirements long before women got the idea they wanted to be police officers. The reason is simple. Police officers are often called upon to engage in one-on-one physical combat. A large man will be challenged less often. A large man will more often be able to subdue a person without causing them permanent injury than an officer who is short and lightweight, regardless of sex.

The consequence of this stupid federal ruling is that people are getting shot to death by female officers who can't subdue them otherwise. Often, the original cause of their arrest is not a capital offense.

You mix a bunch of hungry lawyers and cowardly politicians, add a dash of fanatical special interests, and season with pack journalism, and you'll produce a concoction that will poison the economic health of any country.

God only knows how many millions of dollars, if not billions, have been drained out of the American economy by these frivolous rules and regulations and lawsuits concerning alleged discrimination.